Harem Hero

Lala and Akeno

When you eventually returned to the lab, you found Mitsuru knee deep in a new experiment. A pair of huge, circular goggles were strapped to her face as she applied a bright flame to the pilfered stone. "Mitsuru, what are you doing with that thing?"

"Thing? I'll have you know that this is primo, grade-A, genuine, cross-dimensional matter!"

"I don't know what that is."

Mitsuru grumbles to herself and halts the torch, removing her goggles and turning back to face you, "What do I even teach you these things for? Have you not been listening for the past three years?"

"Yes, and I can guarantee that you've never talked about cross-dimensional whatever before now."

"My memory is picture perfect!"

"Bullshit. You don't even remember what you had for lunch yesterday."

"Science is more important than worthless memories like those. But I suppose I should explain to you fully now that we have more time." You lean down and look at the stone again. Small cracks release purple light into the surrounding container. "Where to begin..."

"Let's start with this," you say, tapping the glass case, "Why is this rock so important?"

"As I said, this is cross-dimensional matter. An element with no formal name, nor precedent in the earthly sciences. I am certain that those fools trying to invade our planet have their own name for it, which I am currently endeavouring to discover for myself. It can be used for a variety of purposes, a power source, or as a signal generator, even the card you used to summon Rias is lined with it. Not to mention the Sledgehammer."

"Okay, so how did you get your hands on the matter to make that stuff in the first place?"

"A year ago, I found it. There's nothing more to the tale than that I'm afraid. But now I suspect that our adversaries projected it into our world as a sort of anchor. The rock emits a powerful signal that can be followed easily. It begs to reason that the 'Untethered' Rias spoke of use it to find suitable worlds for invasion."

You eye the Sledgehammer wearily, now perched atop her workbench table, "I see. So, the reason they're here is because of us?"

"Chicken or the egg, you fool. We found this matter because they sent it here! Regardless of our usage, they would come to us soon enough."

"And the cards?"

"With a little reverse engineering and some simple astrophysics, I discovered a method of scrying for other worlds that bares a strong resemblance to their own. We can locate other universes parallel to ours, designate a target, and pull them through using it. The cards contain all the necessary data for the Sledgehammer to carry out this task. The infinite expanse of all that exists and ever will exist lays before us."

"And that way, we can summon people who technically don't exist."

"They do exist. They bare strong resemblances to our own cultural media through sheer chance – when you have an infinite number of realities with an infinite number of people living within them, it is not so difficult a task."

You slip the card out from your pocket and study Rias' likeness, "Well, I'm relieved that she isn't trapped in the card or anything. What did I tell you about objectifying women?"

"My experiments to transform people into furniture were not comparable to the male gaze," she insists, "Please refrain from such unflattering comparisons."

You sigh and move on, "And how much do we know about these Untethered exactly?"

"Nothing more then what I deducted. They utilize this cross-dimensional matter to launch attacks using autonomous programmes. Ergo, the golem Rias so effortlessly destroyed. Their true purpose is a mystery."